LAS VEGAS -- A Hollywood talent broker convicted twice of deceptive business practices in California is searching for that star quality in southern Nevada.
Advertisements seeking cute kids and babies have appeared locally in print and online, attracting the attention of parents and law enforcement.
The talent broker, recently arrested in Los Angeles for failing to pay restitution to victims there, has begun scouting new clients here -- kids and babies with the "it" factor, who's parents will pay for a long-shot at stardom.
For millions of pre-teen girls, the opening music to Disney's Hannah Montana is more than a theme song. It's a call to celebrity.
"Her dream was to be in front of the camera. She loves getting her pictures taken, she loves singing and dancing," said parent Stephanie Bottoms.
In her 7-year-old daughter Sophia, Bottoms recognizes a Miley in the making. She says her contact at Scooter's Kids, an agency in search of "photogenic kids and babies," also saw it and upon seeing snapshots of Sophia, selected her for a screening.
"They said they absolutely loved her. So we made an appointment and went in and met with the gentleman that runs Scooter's," said Bottoms.
The name on the business card? Mr. C., in bold beneath the grinning girl in pig tails grasping wads of cash. Like the card, the contract Stephanie would later sign says little about Scooter's or its services at nearly $1,500 a family. But Stephanie explains her meeting with Mr. C. left she and Sophia star struck.
"Of course he had this commercial ready for her, asked her if she was allergic to animals, how she worked with animals, if she like animals. And he said, 'There's this commercial ready to go and I need to get you to California so she can audition for it,'" said Bottoms.
Like Stephanie, Sean and Cyntha Brady say they signed within hours of their screening, not with Mr. C., but with Mr. Kendall.
"It was, snap, snap, snap. It all happened so fast. That was another red flag," said Cyntha.
Different name, different logo, but the same contract. Unlike Bottoms, suspicion got the best of the Brady's. They stopped payment on their nearly $500 check and started surfing the internet.
"When I looked up further info about the name that was on the business license, that's when we found all the stuff from his history that said he'd been convicted before of fraud. That's when we were like, 'OK, we're out,'" said Ms. Brady.
Scooter's Kids, according to its Clark County business license application, is owned by Carl Carranza, AKA Mr. C., AKA Mr. Kendall. Cyntha's simple Google search uncovered Carranza's checkered history in Hollywood, including criminal prosecutions for false advertising in 2002 and again in 2009.
It was these convictions that prompted California lawmakers to better regulate the talent industry.
"It outlawed brokering talent agents, which is what he was doing. So as of January 1, if he continued to do that in California, he would be violating the law and we would be prosecuting him for that. So it doesn't surprise me that he would leave California because of that," said City of Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Mark Lambert.
Public records reveal Carranza's first contacts in Nevada late last year, followed by a Las Vegas Metro arrest and search warrant in March for doing business without a license and for deceptive advertising.
Currently, Carranza faces a single charge for the license violation.
"What parents need to know is no matter how attractive it is, you don't pay for an agent, you don't pay for a manager, you don't pay for an audition. That's not the way it works," said Lambert.
The Brady's say Carranza hired a collection's agent to recover the $500 he believes he's owed. So far, they say, they've successfully defended the effort.
Bottoms insists she has nothing to show for her $1,500, save that pet commercial audition in California -- a one-on-one interview that turned out to be an open casting call.
"Just last week, Sophia was asking me, 'Mom, when do I get to do that commercial?' And to try to explain to a 7-year-old that there are people that just want to take advantage of you when you don't know the full background of the situation. So trying to explain that to her, she's very disappointed at this point," she said.
Carranza declined a request for an interview and instead sent a threatening letter from his lawyer. In it, Carranza insists he's not aware of any complaints by current or former clients and is not currently accepting new clients for Scooter's Kids. Instead, he's working as a consultant for another agency called Kids 2 Fame in Las Vegas.
When we attempted to learn more about that arrangement from his attorney, Michael Gowdey, Gowdey hung up on our reporter.
